I’m quite disciplined with myself and what I want, if there’s something that I want, I make it happen. You just have to stay focused.

Chef Elfwing is the head chef at Senses Restaurant at Hilton Kuala Lumpur. Originally from Sweden, he studied the culinary arts in Australia from age 16 after being inspired by his father, who was also an international chef. He’s worked with the legendary Chiong Liew at Grange in Adelaide, and at the world-famous Fat Duck restaurant with Heston Blumenthal, among others. He’s published his own cookbook, which features his gorgeous photography. His Senses restaurant has won several awards including the prestigious 5-Star Diamond Awards as one of the Best Restaurants in the World and Hospitality Asia Award for Best Western Cuisine.

But he’s so much more than a pile of fancy titles and accolades. He’s warm, innovative, passionate, creative and inspiring to say the least. He’s humble about his extraordinary feats and talents, and willing to admit there’s always more to learn. He has an infectious energy and he continues to work hard to earn the fruits of his labor. Tasting his culinary creations assured me of that. He was kind enough to let me interview him, snap some photos, and prepare some of his classic dishes for me.

Needless to say, I was blown away by Chef Eflwing’s food as well as his character.

Unbelievable texture, melt-in-your-mouth trout. The presentation is so unique–watching the smoke seep out as the jar is opened, smelling the soft wood chip smoke as it makes its way towards you, and the unbeatable taste.. top-notch combination. Truly delights your Senses.

Another brilliant presentation–first you’re served the cod, lobster, scallop and potato so you really see what’s in the soup. Then they pour the soup over it all, piping hot, as the aroma fills your nose. A perfect, hearty soup for winter.

Another fantastic presentation. Bursting with fresh ocean flavor. ”Edible sand” concoction unlike anything I’ve seen or tasted, paired perfectly with the potato purée. A sophisticated harmony of delights from the sea.

How long have you been living in Malaysia and working at Senses inside Hilton Kuala Lumpur?

Eight years, it was the 1st of July, 2004 that I started here. I’m Swedish but I worked 7 years in Australia before coming here. I worked in Adalaide before with Chiong Liew, and Kuala Lumpur wanted to “bring papa home” because he’s Malaysian, so they asked me and Kelly Brennan to open and run Senses, based on legendary KL chef Chiong Liew‘s themes. It has changed a lot since opening, because of the clientele: people go to Chiong Liew’s personal restaurant to eat Chiong Liew’s food: he cooks about 20 dishes and it has been that way for 10 years.

But here, the Malaysians request new meals. You have to listen to your customers. That was something I had to learn, I came from the very stubborn, determined Chiong Liew mentality because I learned from him, that “this is my dish, nothing can change.” The Malaysians are very loyal in that they like coming back to a place, but they don’t want the same thing time and again–they want different dishes from the same chef. We might think we know how things work based on previous experince, but its always changing.

What are your favorite ways to integrate aspects of local Malaysian food or culture into your creations?

I think I learned a lot about Malaysian food, and its integration of Malay, Chinese, Indian aspects while working with Chiong Liew in Australia. We opened Senses with the concept to cook gourmet Malysian food, but the locals were saying, “I don’t need you to cook shark fin or bok choi for me here, I can go to the local Chinese restaruant for that.” We had all these beautiful lychees and mangosteens, and they’re saying, “I’ll just get that at my corner market, can you please give me some rhubarb? Something special from your culture?”

Smoking Allowed, my signature dish–the one served in a smoke-filled jar, is certainly Scandinavian, but it uses ocean trout from Australia. I wouldn’t be allowed to use a Norwegian salmon for this because of the texture and fat content, I had to test and try to find the right fish. So that’s why I integrate different foods from different places, to get the best ingredients from where they are in the world. I buy local, but I don’t buy the typical Asian vegetables. My fish is imported from Japan or Australia, but a lot of this is because of customer demand, because they want something special, something they cannot find on the streets.

Cheong’s food is very modern Malaysian: if you’re Malaysian, you might understand where his food is coming from, but you might not like it because it’s not prepared in the traditional ways. The locals are very protective about how a laksa should be, but every single person makes it a different way.

My food is a bit more straightforward, it might be refined, but the flavors are very recognizable and familiar.

What do you eat when you’re not at work?

I tend to cook at home on my day off.. I lock myself in my home on my days off. It’s taken me years to be this relaxed. Some chefs are all over the place, every two years a new place.

What will you do after you’re finished at Senses?

Right now Senses and the Hilton here is my plan and my life. We’re going to renovate, we’re actually going to have a new restaurant and new bar.. this is a hotel that doesn’t stand still. We’re going to move more towards a western, European restaurant. When I want to leave again, I will move back to Australia. I have citizenship there as well.

I never planned to stay this long but I like it and I’m happy so.. why move?

We met an Executive Chef in Thailand, and he is in charge of managing the chefs but no longer cooks. Are you cooking still?

Yes, we have 160 chefs and 8 outlets at this hotel, so we have an executive chef here too–but I said to myself.. I don’t want that job, I don’t want 220 headaches. I am spoiled, lucky even, that I am just one head chef in one restauarant. I never planned to stay this long but I like it and I’m happy so.. why move?

Was it your dream to become a chef when you were younger?

Yes, I would say. I’ve always loved reptiles and fish, so I was interested in marine biology and the like, but cooking was more instantly gratifying and when I was 15, 16 it seemed like an easier choice to study cooking than marine biology. Since I was young, my father was an international chef, and I would visit him wherever he was and it was always a kind of holiday to see him cooking on those big cruise ships. My dad was working as a chef at Carnival cruise ships company when Hurricane Katrina hit. The company offered to house people for free but they had a huge problem with criminals on board, so he quit and moved to Australia. I visited him there, just thinking it was a vacation, and I was wowed by all the sunshine.. endless sunshine! So it made me think, maybe I should study here, so I studied at culinary school there from age 16. Most of my inspiration came form seeing my dad, working all over the world, traveling. It all started from there.

I saw you featured on Molecular Gastronomy, can you explain what molecular gastronomy is and how you use it?

Your basic french training is always in the background in your mind as a chef. My food, in terms of molecular, is definitely.. well, I spent a month at the Fat Duck with the legendary Heston Blumenthal, and that showed a side of molecular gastronomy that really appealed to me. Heston’s style is more about time and temperature, and he is very precise with this. You’re not adding foreign ingredients for a texture that’s not there–the Spanish chefs change a lot of texture: you have a familiar flavor but the texture is strange. I would love to go and eat it, but it’s not the kind that I enjoy cooking. Smoking Allowed is vacuum cooking, which is old-fashioned already, but its very precise, and so very fool-proof, so you get a very consistent product every time you do it. But we haven’t made a trout into a shaving foam texture, so it’s still a fish. The edible sensibilities comes form my inspiration from Heston.

Who are some of the coolest people you met here?

Mel Gibson, Louis Hamiltion (he had two-well done tenderloins, french fries and heinz tomato ketchup) because we have the Formula 1 races. Sebastian Vettel who won Formula 1 for the past two years, he comes every year, I was lucky enough to give him one of my books.

Have you ever had any failures that you felt you could not overcome?

What can I say.. cooking is very personal, because YOU are the one choosing the ingredients, serving the dish. Sometimes you care if the guest doesn’t like it because you might believe in it so strongly and like it so much, but after 15 years in the kitchen, I think you learn to be humble. Not everyone can like what you like. You have a lot of failures testing recipes, but you test it–if its not good, you don’t serve it. Testing is a different type of failure–it doesn’t hurt as much. Being very much hands-on you eliminate a lot of that. I haven’t had any serious failures I think. I’m quite disciplined with myself and what I want, if there’s something that I want, I make it happen. You just have to stay focused.

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For more information on Chef Elfwing and Senses Restuarant, please visit:

In Kuala Lumpur, our couchsurfing hosts discovered a group of artists who established a gallery and studio, called 無限發掘 FINDARS, to work together, inspire one another, and showcase their creativity. It’s a space that’s open to the community and to different types of art, as well as an independent music label and studio.

It made me pretty damn nostalgic for days spent in the studios at art school, working late into the night with your best mates by your side. We loved seeing the sketchbooks of painter Beng Tze, who, along with the other founders of FINDARS honed their crafts many moons ago at Malaysian Institute of Art.

We were lucky to interview one of the founders Lim Keh Soon, who makes some of the freshest (and most twisted!) illustrations I’ve seen.

How old are you?

32.

What brought you to KL?

I grew up close to here and moved to the centre 10 years ago to study.

What did you study?

Illustration at the Malaysian Institute of Art.

So, we are here in ‘Findars’ art space. How did the project start?

I met Beng Tze and Min Lik, we work together with a few other artists and share the rent for the building. We put on shows when we can. The group started in February 2008. There’s 6 of us – Me, Wong Eng Leong, Wong Min Lik, Tey Beng Tze, Bannai Roo, and Rainf.

Do a lot of people purchase your pieces?

We had another space near the central market where people would come in and buy but not so many collectors come to this location because its a bit more off-the-beaten track.

Have you been able to make money?

Not so much. We all have other jobs too. I work a few days a week as a part-time teacher, teaching art to 19-and 20-year old students, the rest of the time I spend here as the studio is good for my concentration. I used to work alone at my house but it wasn’t good for inspiration. Around 3 years ago I made a comic book, inspired by Japanese Manga, and published 130 copies. I sold them by myself, mainly to friends.

Would you say you were more of an illustrator than a painter?

Yes, but I have always been interested in painting so I have been doing a lot of that recently.

What’s the art scene like in KL?

The most happening time is the show opening. They are ongoing but the audience is usually quite conservative.

Are there lots of artists in the city?

Not compared with Indonesia, that’s known as an art hub for South-East Asia.

What is your favourite style of drawing, or thing to draw?

Characters. Not the normal style of character drawing though. Something abnormal, cut-off or something.

What’s the inspiration for your current piece?

Moving here I find I have a proper space to work. I love to see the scenery and sometimes try to include local news. My most recent piece was inspired by the Prime Ministers slogan, “You help me, I help you” I named it “You eat me, I eat you”.

Is this piece, your painting called “You Eat Me, I Eat You” for an upcoming show?

No. I plan to do a solo show and possibly produce another comic book this year.

What materials do you normally use?

Acrylic paint. I don’t sketch or plan, just go straight in with paint. Most of them I imagine and then paint. For some I use real objects and then paint around it.

How long do your large paintings usually take to complete?

Around 2 months.

How do you know when a piece is finished?

Well, this one isn’t. I still need to refine. Sometimes it’s boring though looking at the same piece, so I do some drawing instead.

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FINDARS regularly hosts exhibitions and live music at their gallery in Kuala Lumpur. Fore more information, check them out on the web at the following places.

Malaysia is a huge mixing pot of cultures, with such large populations of immigrants that Chinese and Indian food can be considered typical Malaysian food.

Nasi Kandar is a really popular dish here in Kuala Lumpur and throughout Malaysia: it’s basically rice served buffet-style with different curries, vegetables, noodles, and other sides. ”Nasi” means rice and “kandar” is the pole that vendors use on their shoulders to balance two buckets of rice. One heaping plate of warm delicious-ness that leaves you feeling like passing out costs a whopping 6 or 7 Ringgits (USD $2). Basically its heaven.

Today, my Polish couchsurfing hosts Magda & Jurek took me to their favorite Nasi Kandar restaurant, and I spoke with the owner, Norshaw Izzarudin and her son Raffik. Raffik’s brother in law is the chef and it’s a family business through-and-through.

They’ve been running the business for 7 years, which, like most similar establishments, has no name or address. However, just because they’re not on Google Maps doesn’t mean business isn’t booming.. its a friendly neighborhood shack and the locals use their hands to eat (according to Magda it tastes better this way). A nice cold Lime Ice Tea helps wash down the spicy chilis peppered throughout the curries while you sweat in the shade, karaoke from the wedding accross the street filling your ears.